The right to adequate remuneration for 'solo-entrepreneurs'

• Applicants: Professor Dr. Thomas Klein; Professorin Dr. Monika Schlachter-Voll
• Subject Area: Private Law ; Principles of Law and Jurisprudence ; Public Law
• Term: since 2022
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 461224849

The proposed project aims to examine the protection gap solo-entrepreneurs face when their precarious negotiation position hinders them to work under fair conditions and earn fair remuneration. As soloentrepreneurs are economically dependent on their clients, imbalances of power between them may affect their ability to freely negotiate the terms of their contracts. Hence, securing adequate standards of living and thus protecting themselves from labour exploitation can be difficult. Securing the right to adequate remuneration for solo-entrepreneurs in order to prevent labour exploitation is an under-researched area. For this purpose, the project will analyse international and European human rights law, as well as Austrian and German legislations. The project will assess possible tensions between international obligations relating to solo-entrepreneurs’ rights and EU law. The project focuses on four objectives: (1) identifying legal obligations of States under international and European human rights law to protect solo-entrepreneurs and possible individual, collective and social approaches to prevent exploitation of solo-entrepreneurs (2) analyzing the implementation of international human rights obligations that would enhance the protection of soloentrepreneurs at national level in Austria and Germany, (3) assessing the implementation of international human rights obligations in line with European Union law and (4) developing targeted legal recommendations on how to address the situation of self-employed in light of international human rights and EU-law. The project will be structured in four workstreams according to the objectives. The legal analysis, in particular of workstream 1, will draw on international human and labour rights standards on a global and regional level (in particular relevant International Labour Organisation (ILO) conventions or the European Social Charter) and contain a case law analysis of the respective judicial and non-judicial bodies. Workstream 2 will be based on analyses of relevant national legislation and jurisdiction of courts in Austria and Germany. In the context of workstream 3, the analysis will use jurisprudence of the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU). The project will tackle the under-researched questions which human rights obligations exist for soloentrepreneurs, the extent to which this group of workers is covered by these obligations and how the latter are settled in national legislations. As conflicts between them may occur, the project embeds the research in international human rights law to interlink it with EU-law, and in the national legislations of Austria and Germany. This setting allows to analyse different areas of law and combine the expertise of the researchers involved in order to jointly develop innovative recommendations for further legal steps to protect soloentrepreneurs.

• DFG Programme: Research Grants
• International Connection: Austria
• Cooperation Partners: Dr. Karin Lukas; Dr. Julia Planitzer